Today the building of Minsk GUM stands on Prospekt Nezavisimosti, but the first store of this kind appeared in the Belarusian capital on May 28, 1934. It stood on the corner of Komsomolskaya and Sovetskaya streets — the latter has now been renamed Prospekt Nezavisimosti. During the Great Patriotic War, the GUM building was badly damaged; it could have been restored, but postwar plans included widening the half-ruined Sovetskaya Street, and so the old department store was demolished.
In the summer of 1944, small shops began to appear here and there around the city, essentially serving the role of the capital's GUM. The decision to build a new department store in Minsk was made in the Kremlin: Deputy Chairman of the USSR Council of People's Commissars Anastas Mikoyan approved it on July 26, 1945.
Prisoners of war from Germany helped build GUM in the capital of the BSSR - they started it, and Soviet builders finished it. The opening of the store in November 1951 became a real celebration and a gift for the city's residents.
In 1969, Minsk GUM became one of the first Soviet stores to introduce self-service. Seven years later, it was divided into departments here: "Goods for Women," "Goods for Children," and so on. In 1997, GUM was transformed into an open joint-stock company, and its shareholders included store employees and retirees who had previously worked there.
